1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus which supplies recording mediums to a plurality of printing sections, which are arranged in a vertical direction, and parallel-processes image recording on a plurality of the recording mediums by operating in a parallel manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing apparatus of a parallel processing type is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2002-103735. This printing apparatus realizes high-speed printing in cases of creating large volumes of printed material and the like by a plurality of printing units being disposed in parallel, a print job being shared between these printing units, and these printing units being operated in a parallel manner.
The printing apparatus disclosed in JP-A No. 2002-103735 includes a printing unit and a base unit, and is structured by stacking or more of the printing unit on the base unit. The base unit is structured by a paper ejection section which ejects printed recording paper that has been conveyed from the printing unit, a paper supply section which stores recording paper and supplies this recording paper to the printing unit, and a control section.
Each printing unit in JP-A No. 2002-103735 features a printing section (printing portion), a first paper supply portion (first paper supply path), a second paper supply portion (second paper supply path), a first paper ejection portion (first paper ejection path) and a second paper ejection portion (second paper ejection path). The printing section is structured by an inkjet head or the like which implements printing on the recording paper. The first paper supply portion supplies recording paper which has been fed in through a feeding aperture to the printing section. The second paper supply portion supplies recording paper which has been fed in through the feeding aperture to a printing unit at another level. The first paper ejection portion ejects recording paper which has been printed on at the printing section to an ejection aperture. The second paper ejection portion ejects recording paper which has been printed on by a printing unit at another level to the ejection aperture.
In the printing apparatus of JP-A No. 2002-103735, the ejection aperture of the printing unit at the lowest level communicates with the paper ejection section of the base unit, and the feeding aperture of that printing unit communicates with the paper supply section of the base unit. Between printing units at adjacent levels, the second paper supply path and the second paper ejection path of the printing unit at the lower side communicate with the feeding aperture and the ejection aperture, respectively, of the printing unit at the upper side. Thus, in this printing apparatus, the second paper supply paths of the respective printing units are connected to structure a single paper supply course for guiding the recording paper from the paper supply section to the respective printing units, and the second paper ejection paths of the respective printing units are connected to structure a single paper ejection course for guiding the recording paper from the respective printing units to the paper ejection section. Therefore, recording paper that has been supplied along the paper supply course, into which the respective second paper supply paths are connected, from the paper supply section of the base unit to an arbitrary printing unit can be supplied to the printing section of the arbitrary printing unit by the first paper supply path thereof. Further, the recording paper that has been printed by this printing section is fed out along the first paper ejection path to the second paper ejection path, and this recording paper is ejected along the paper ejection course, into which the respective second paper ejection paths are connected, to the paper ejection section of the base unit.
Now, JP-A No. 2002-103735 does not include any descriptions concerning dealing with cases in which paper blockages (jams) occur in the printing apparatus. For example, in a case in which jammed recording paper is disposed in the paper supply course or paper ejection course described above so as to straddle between two printing units, if one of the printing units is pulled out forward relative to the other printing unit in order to remove the jammed recording paper, the recording paper will be torn and removal of a torn-off piece of the paper that is left in the other printing unit will be difficult. Furthermore, with a recording medium which is resistant to tearing, such as an OHP sheet or the like, when a printing unit is pulled out, a tensile force will be applied through the recording medium to both the printing units, and there may be damage to the interiors of the printing units, the printing sections, and the like.
In contrast, in a printing apparatus (inkjet-system recording device) disclosed in JP-A No. 2002-219796, a plurality of unit-form recording sections are provided with recording portions including inkjet heads which discharge ink. The unit-form recording sections are provided stacked in a vertical direction. At a side portion of each unit-form recording section, an opening portion is formed for performance of maintenance operations on the respective unit-form recording sections, such as replacing ink tanks, loading recording mediums and the like. Each opening portion can be opened and closed by an opening/closing lid. Hence, a user, service engineer or the like puts the opening/closing lid into an opened state to perform printing apparatus maintenance operations from a side face side of the unit-form recording section.
However, at the printing apparatus of JP-A No. 2002-219796, in, for example, a case of extracting jammed recording paper from an inward side (the side of a side portion of the unit-form recording section which is at a side opposite to the side portion thereof at which the opening portion is formed) relative to a printing section (an inkjet head), it is necessary for a user or the like to insert a hand through the opening portion and deep into the unit-form recording section to find and pull out the recording paper, and this operation is difficult. Obviously, if the recording paper is torn at this time, removal of a torn-off piece of paper that is left in the unit-form recording section will be more difficult. Furthermore, even for maintenance operations such as replacing ink tanks and the like, it is necessary for a user or the like to insert a hand through the opening portion into the unit-form recording section. Thus, operability is poor.
In JP-A No. 11-348385, a printing apparatus (an array-type printer) is disclosed in which a plurality of image-forming sections are provided in parallel at a printer main body and are operated in parallel. In this printing apparatus, the image-forming sections have a structure which can be mounted at and removed from the printer main body. Consequently, supplies loading operations and maintenance operations, such as loading toner for development, clearing recording paper feeding jams (paper blockages), cleaning the machine interior and the like, can be carried out more easily.
However, for this printing apparatus of JP-A No. 11-348385, there are no descriptions concerning dealing with paper blockages that occur in a paper supply/feeding portion (a paper supply path) which is for feeding recording paper from a paper supply section, which is disposed at a lower portion of the printer main body, to the respective image-forming portions. Furthermore, in a case of extracting, for example, jammed recording paper that has stopped in the paper supply/feeding portion of the printer main body at a vicinity of a paper supply aperture of an image-forming portion (at a feed roller disposed near a paper supply connector), it will be necessary for a user or the like to take out the image-forming section from the printer main body and then insert a hand deep into a portion for mounting the image-forming section in the printer main body (a cavity portion) to find and pull out the recording paper, and this operation is difficult. Furthermore, for recording paper which has jammed inside an image-forming section, a specific method of removal is not described in JP-A No. 11-348385. To extract, for example, jammed recording paper which is completely accommodated inside an image-forming section at a vicinity of a paper ejection aperture of the image-forming section (a feed roller which is disposed near the paper ejection aperture), it is thought that it will be necessary to dismantle the image-forming section.
Further still, with the printing apparatus of JP-A No. 11-348385, in a case in which, for example, recording paper that is fed out from the respective image-forming sections is desired to be ejected to an accumulation ejection portion provided at an upper portion of the printer main body, or at a lower portion of the printer main body as in the printing apparatus of JP-A No. 2002-103735, a paper ejection path is provided extending in a vertical direction at a recording paper ejection direction side portion of each image-forming section. Hence, it is capable of ejecting to the upper portion or lower portion. However, in such a case, similarly to the printing apparatus of JP-A No. 2002-103735, if jammed recording paper is disposed in this paper ejection path so as to straddle between two of the image-forming sections, then if one of these image-forming sections is pulled out to the side relative to the other image-forming section in order to remove the jammed recording paper, the recording paper will be torn and removal of the torn-off piece of paper that is left in the other image-forming section will be difficult. In the worst cases, interiors of the image-forming sections and printing sections and the like may be damaged by tensile forces acting through the recording paper onto the two image-forming sections.
A printing apparatus is demanded which supplies recording mediums to a plurality of printing sections, which are arranged in a vertical direction, and parallel-processes image recording on the plurality of recording mediums by operating in a parallel manner, at which printing apparatus recording medium jam processing and maintenance operations can be carried out with ease. A printing apparatus is demanded at which, in a case in which a recording medium that has become jammed is disposed to straddle between a supply path and a printing section or between a printing section and an ejection path, or a case in which a recording medium that has become jammed is disposed to straddle between a plurality of printing units which are individually equipped with a plurality of printing sections, the device will not be damaged by processing of such jams.